CEA Responds to Decision to Delay Keystone XL

November 10, 2011

CEA Responds to Decision to Delay Keystone XLRefusing to issue necessary permit prevents thousands of new jobs from being created

HOUSTON – In response to today’s news that the State Department will delay its decision on issuing a Presidential Permit for Keystone XL – which would deliver more than 700,000 barrels of crude oil per day from Canada, Montana, the Dakotas, Oklahoma and Texas to Gulf Coast refineries – Consumer Energy Alliance (CEA) executive vice president Michael Whatley issued the following statement:

“Today’s decision is disappointing to say the least. The State Department’s Environmental Impact Statement on Keystone XL – released earlier this year after three years of analysis – found that the pipeline would be the safest ever constructed under current regulations. That same assessment not only affirmed the safety of the current route, but also found that any alternative route would ‘disturb more land and cross more water bodies than the proposed route.’ It is also ironic that in 2009, when the Obama administration approved the Alberta Clipper pipeline – which delivers crude oil from Alberta to U.S. markets, as the Keystone XL pipeline will do – the justification was that ‘the addition of crude oil pipeline capacity between Canada and the United States will advance a number of strategic interests of the United States.’

“Keystone XL will create 20,000 high-paying construction and manufacturing jobs and generate more than $5 billion in new tax revenue for the corridor states. Each day that the President delays Keystone XL is another day that Americans are paying higher prices at the pump than they should be forced to deal with an economy that is not growing as fast as it could be. America wants to get back to work, and arbitrary bureaucratic delays like today’s decision to delay Keystone XL mean that hardworking men and women in this country will have to wait even longer to find jobs.”

Earlier this year, CEA delivered to the State Department more than 450,000 public comments from Americans across the country expressing support for building Keystone XL.